In the battle of Zeeland, East had little problem securing bragging rights against West on Friday night a spirited matchup.

The host Chix turned what looked like a potential shootout in the opening minutes into a comfortable 50-39 non-conference victory against the Dux in the only meeting between the schools this season.

"We knew it would be a tough battle," East coach Mickey Cochran said. "I think we got done what we wanted to get done, but it was tough. Every possession was a challenge. I'm proud of our guys. We beat a good team."

The undefeated Chix (5-0) had three players finish in double figures in scoring.

Senior center Josh Groenhof led East with 16 points, including seven in the fourth quarter. Senior point guard Logan Kroll had 15 points and senior forward Tyler Smith added 11, including two 3-pointers.

Junior center Jordan VanDort was high scorer for the Dux (3-2) with 11 points.

"Yeah, definitely, being my senior year and being our crosstown rival, it's good to win," Groenhof said of knocking off West. "It means a lot. It's the only time we're going to play them, so it's good to come out with a win.

"It's always fun to play somebody when you know them."

There was mutual respect for both teams.

First-year West coach Kevin Towne, a 2000 East graduate, played for Cochran. He also spent the 2009-10 season on the bench as one of Cochran's assistants and is using East as the model to build West's program.

"We need to shoot well to win. They did a really good job defensively against us and that's why they're 5-0," Towne said. "They're one of the best teams, I think, in West Michigan. They have a good complement of bigs and some shooters and some leadership there."

The leadership of Groenhof and Kroll helped the Chix rebound after falling behind 13-11 after the first quarter. East ratcheted up its defense in the second quarter to seize a 24-17 advantage at halftime.

"They've got some veteran players and Kevin does a great job with them," Cochran said. "They played very tough defense on us and they're very physical. They got up on us right away and they hit a couple shots outside. We were back on our heels a little bit.

"Our guys kept their composure. We did what we wanted to do. We got it inside to him," he said of the 6-foot-7 Groenhof, "and we let Logan, our little water bug, penetrate and get to the basket."

Limiting the Dux to four points in the second quarter was the turning point.

"We just pressured them, got some hands up in front of shots and locked down on defense," Groenhof said. "We knew our offense would come. We wanted to go inside to the post and the inside-out game. Our guys hit the outside shots."